THE BLUE CAP JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS ASSOCIATION VOL 9. SEPTEMBER 2002 The Cross and the Sword: Glenageary, Co. Dublin. The family later moved to Marie, Tommy and Charlie Martin in the Mount town House on Lower Mount town Road, Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire). They finally settled in First World War Greenbank, on Carrickbrennan Road, Monkstown. As Part 1. the Martins do not appear on the 1901 census for the house, the family must have moved to Greenbank Mr. Philip Lecane. sometime after April 1901.The house stood on five acres. Member the Royal Dublin Fusiliers Association. It had flower, fruit and vegetable gardens, a rockery, green lawns, tennis courts, a summer house and a Room 10, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, bamboo plantation. There were trees, a paddock, Co. Louth, Ireland. 27th January 1975. cowsheds and an acre or more of rough unused ground, with two ponds. A gardener and under-gardener were Sister Michael Farrell transferred Mother Mary from employed. her chair to her bed in the small hours of the winter morning. She then gently brushed the old woman’s The family’s idyllic life was shattered on St. Patrick’s hair. Mother Mary took Sister Michael’s right hand Day 1907, when Tom Martin was found ‘ lying dead on in both of hers and kissed it. ‘Thank you dear’ she the floor, a revolver in his hand and a bullet through his said. Then she closed her eyes and went to sleep. eye.’ A doctor who lived near Greenbank was first on Sister Michael remained on duty at the bedside. At the scene after the shooting demonstrated that the death 2.40 a.m. Mother Mary showed signs of restlessness. could not have been other than accidental. Whatever the Sister Michael put her hand on Mother Mary’s arm reason for Tom’s death, his wife Mary, pregnant with and asked if she was alright. Did she want anything? their twelfth child, had to carry on, supported by relatives Mother Mary opened her eyes, looked at her, smiled, from her own and her husband’s families. looked up to heaven and peacefully passed away. Upon her death, the religious order founded by Mother Mary Martin had 450 sisters. Today the Medical Missionaries of Mary come from eighteen different nationalities and work in sixteen countries. Mother Mary had brought much healing, comfort and joy to the world in the years since she had been born Marie Martin in 1892. Marie, Tommy, and Charlie Martin were among eleven children born to Tom and Mary Martin of Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire), Co. Dublin. The Martin’s were a prosperous Catholic family, Tom Martin being a partner in the firm of T. and C. Martin, Timber Merchants. Tommy was the eldest child. Marie, born on the 25th of April 1892 was the Marie Martin in her VAD Uniform 1915. second born. Charlie, was the fourth child. At the The 1911 census shows Mary Martin as head of the time of the older children’s births, the family lived in household. Marie an five of her brothers were in the Glencar, a substantial red-brick house still standing house on the night of the census, as were Marie Ernst, a on Marlborough Road, governess from Bavaria and five female servants. 1 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS ASSOCIATION VOL.9. SEPTEMBER 2002 As neither Tommy nor Charlie was present, it may be At 4:00 p.m. on the 5th of August 1915, the 5th that they were away at boarding school. The summer Connaught Rangers left Mudros harbour on board the of 1914 saw the Martin family still living at Clacton. At 3:00 a.m. on the 6th of August they landed at Greenbank. In the meantime Marie had been Anzac Cove on the Gallipoli peninsula. With the rest of educated, with her two first cousins, at a finishing the 29th Brigade, they were reinforcements for the school in Bonn, Germany. Tommy had graduated Australian troops who had been fighting there since the from Trinity College, Dublin. Charlie was an 25th of April. Sometime between the landing on the 6th undergraduate at Trinity. Upon the declaration of of August and the 25th of September, Tommy Martin was war, Tommy joined the Connaught Rangers and badly wounded. He was shipped home to Ireland, where Charlie, the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. Having he was hospitalised on Bere Island, Co. Cork. completed a year’s course in First Aid, Hygiene and Home Nursery, with the St. John Ambulance Brigade, In the meantime Charlie Martin, with the rank of Marie applied to serve as a V.A.D. ( Voluntary Aid Lieutenant, was posted to the 6th Battalion, Royal Dublin Detachment i.e. a voluntary nurse). Early in Fusiliers. The battalion was formed at the regimental September 1914, she was interviewed by a selection depot Naas, Co. Kildare in August 1914 and sent to the board. She was sent to Richmond Hospital, Dublin, Curragh, Co. Kildare for training. Presumably, when the where after three months training she was given a 5th Battalion of the Connaught Rangers were moved to certificate stating that she was a trained V.A.D. nurse. the Curragh in January 1915, Charlie was able to spend a certain amount of time with Tommy. Presumably also, With the rank of Lieutenant, Tommy was assigned to they were able to go home to Monkstown on leave. On 5th Battalion of the Connaught Rangers. The the nights between the 27th of April and the 5th of May battalion was formed in Dublin in August 1914. In 1915 inclusive, the 10th (Irish) Division, including September it was sent for training to Kilworth Camp, Tommy and Charlie’s battalions, was transported from Co. Cork as part of 29th Brigade, 10th (Irish) Division. Dublin to Liverpool. The transport ships were escorted In January 1915, the battalion was sent to the by the destroyers HMS Laverock, Legion, Linnet, and Curragh, Co. Kildare. Towards the end of April / Lucifer. From Liverpool the Division was moved to start of May, it was moved to Basingstoke, Basingstoke, Hampshire, where training continued. Hampshire. On the 8th of July 1915, the majority of Again, presumably, Tommy and Charlie would have the battalion moved to Devonport for shipment to the been able to meet each other regularly. The monotony of eastern Mediterranean. But twelve officers, including training was broken on the 28th of May, when King Captain Bryan Cooper (later Major and author of The George V inspected the Irish troops. With the band Tenth (Irish) Division in Gallipoli) and Lieutenant playing the music associated with each particular Tommy Martin and 159 other ranks, mostly from ‘A’ regiment, the soldiers, including the Martin brothers’ Company, took the train to Liverpool. There, at 5.45 battalions marched past the saluting point, allowing each p.m. on the 9th of July they set sail on the Cunard man a clear view of the King. Liner, HMT Mauritania. The Mauritania, sister ship of the recently torpedoed Lusitania, was painted in A few days later, on the 1st of June, the Division was camouflage as an anti-submarine measure. On board inspected by Field-Marshal Lord Kitchener. This time the ship were Lieutenant-General Sir Bryan Mahon, the troops included the 31st Brigade, made up of two commander of the 10th (Irish) Division, his battalions each of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and the headquarters staff, the 30th Brigade headquarters staff, Royal Irish Fusiliers, who had been on musketry training part of the 5th Battalion of the Connaught Rangers, 6th during the inspection by King George V. During and 7th Battalions of the Royal Munster Fusiliers, 6th practice for Kitchener’s visit the Royal Dublin Fusiliers Battalion the Leinster Regiment and detachments of played St Patrick’s Day, instead of their usual marching the 5th Battalion of the Royal Irish Regiment tune. They did this for variety, as all the fusilier (Pioneers). On the 16th of July, the ship docked at battalions, who made up the second two-thirds of the Mudros harbour, Lemnos island in the Mediterranean. parade had the same marching tune i.e. The British Tommy Martin was among the first of the troops of Grenadiers. (Rarely would so many fusilier battalions the 10th (Irish) Division to arrive at Mudros, near to march together). But the fury of the Connaught Rangers, Gallipoli. who shared the right of playing the St Patrick’s Day 2 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS ASSOCIATION VOL.9. SEPTEMBER 2002 march with the Irish Guards alone, was such that the Smyth, Sister Isabelle MMM and the Malta Connection Dubs had to drop the march. No doubt the incident in Healing and Development, Yearbook of the Medical later caused much banter between the older Missionaries of Mary, 2002 edition. Connaught Ranger, Tommy Martin and the younger Taggart, Sister M. Anastasia and Smyth, Sister Isabelle Dublin Fusilier, Charlie Martin. The Medical Missionaries of Mary in Drogheda 1939- 1999 (Drogheda, 1999). On the 9th of July 1915, Charlie’s battalion travelled Westlake, Ray. British Regiments at Gallipoli (London, to Devonport, from where they sailed to the eastern 1996). Mediterranean on the HMT Alaunia. The ship docked War Diary of the 6th Royal Dublin Fusiliers. Public at Gibraltar, Malta and Alexandria, all no doubt Records Office, London. Ref. WO95 / 4296 wonderful sights for the young Charlie. On the 7th of 1911 Census of Kingstown, Co. Dublin. Ref. 94 / 4-B6. August, the battalion was put ashore at ‘C’ Beach, Suvla Bay, a few miles north of Anzac Cove, where In memory of Tom Kettle.